Tammy’s Reviews > King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table > Status Update

Balyn asks for a quest for he knows he is doomed and he would like to do good before he dies. Right before he passed, a sorrowing knight passed Arthur and said he could not stop or he would be slain by some invisible hand. Arthur asked Balyn to see what he could do to help. Sure enough the sorrowing knight was slain before his very eyes by an invisible hand. A knight named Garlon practices Black magic to kill others.

Up comes Sir Pellinore out of the blue in his quest for the Questing Beast and he fought and killed Lot. Then Merlin tell Arthur that he would not have won without these three. He said that Pellinore would continue on his quest and that the brothers would eventually meet their death on the same day. Arthur acknowledges his debt to them and he leaves to fight the Saxons. Balan and Balyn meet Arthur.

King Lot, married to Arthur’s half-sister, took Ryon’s spot and joined the 11 kings to make 12 again (just like the chosing of St. Matthias). They battled him and his men all day long and it looked like Arthur would lose. Then all of a sudden two knights came from behind King Lot’s army and fought so fiercely that they thought it was another army. By the evening, only King Lot remained, fighting strong.

Merlin reminds me of Gandalf, going here and there, finding things out and putting things in motion, and having a deeper knowledge than anyone around him. He told Balyn to go to a certain spot where Ryon would be with a small party of men to kidnap some lady. Balyn and his brother showed up and kills his men (element of surprise). Merlin offers to take Ryon to the strong tower and told the brothers to join Arthur.

His brother Balan showed up and offered to join him. They are doubles! They go into the forest through hill and dale. Then Merlin shows up and they do not recognize. It reminds me of the road to Emmaus. He asked who they are and they asked who he is. Then he said that he knows who they are. He told them their names and the mission Balyn was on. They recognized him right away and said he had to be Merlin.

A false duessa stole the sword from the Lady of the Lake. Its curse will haunt him the rest of his days. Some day Galahad will carry it, use it to good end, and bless Logres. Back to Balan, Lanceour accused him of murder and Balan told him of his quest to kill Ryon, but that was not good enough for Lanceour. The two fought and Lanceour was killed. Then his wife showed up, grabbed the sword, and killed herself.

I wonder of pairings of names like Balyn and Balan influenced Tollers. Balyn decided to kill King Ryon to get back into Arthur’s favor. Another knight names Sir Lanceour was outraged at Balyn and asked permission to go after him and kill him. Arthur told her to go for it. After he left, Merlin showed up and said that Balyn was a dead man walking but Merlin would go to Balyn and do what he can.

Then Balyn jumped up and chopped off her head. King Arthur is outraged for this violates the rules of hospitality and he will never forgive Balyn who says that it is the Lady of the Lake that is the false duessa.

The damsel was impressed. She asked Balyn to return the sword and he refused. She warned him that this sword will cause him to kill his best friend and cause much sorrow. He still refused. She protested and asked for it but he refused so she left in sorrow. The Lady of the Lake appears and tell Arthur she has come with a request. It’s too late to cute off the head of the false duessa but he must cut off Balyn’s head.

A damsel comes in wearing a large sword that is a token of her sorrow. She says it belonged to the Lady of the Lake but the damsel is using it to see if there are any worthy knights. None of King Ryon’s men could pull it out of the scabbard. All of Arthur’s men tried and none could do either. They didn’t think of asking Balyn who was recently freed from jail for killing Arthur’s cousin. He had no problem with it.